Westwood Teacher Finds Adventure in Remote Corners of the Globe

This article is part of an occasional series on how Westwood teachers are spending the summer.

This summer Mike Mao studied birds in the remote forests of Ecuador, he visited coffee plantations in Costa Rica and searched for Queen Conch in the waters of Belize.

No, Mao is not the host of a new Discovery Channel television show. He's a teacher at Westwood High School.

Mao has spent the last three summers traveling to secluded areas of the globe with Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit that organizes volunteers to assist scientists with research related to sustainable development.

"I feel very lucky. I am able to go to very pristine places and participate in important research – a lot that has to do with sustainability and climate change. Those are some really big topics in the news these days," said Mao, who teaches math and science. "This is a great opportunity to travel and learn a lot of different things."

During each of the three trips this summer, Mao was responsible for a group of teens volunteering for Earthwatch, and helped them gather data for the scientists. The program included hours of data collection, reporting and lectures on the topics being researched.

In Ecuador, he traveled to the Cloud Forest -  a reserve located 1900 meters into the mountains and could only be reached by a two-hour hike. There he surveyed birds, reptiles and plants trying to determine the carbon levels in the forest and how climate change has altered the environment.

In Costa Rica, he worked with scientists studying the pollination of insects trying to determine how coffee farmers can use fewer pesticides when cultivating their crops. In Belize, he sailed and snorkeled in the Caribbean looking for Queen Conch, a species that has been largely fished out of the area and is important to the local ecosystem.

"It makes science very accessible to people because a lot of people are afraid of science," said Mao.

But according to Mao, these trips aren't just about discovery and research. They also gave him useful ideas about how his Westwood students can learn from practical scientific research.

"A lot of the research we do in these places has to be very basic. These projects allow me to think about where I can relate these activities to the ones I do in the classroom," said Mao, who is also a Westwood High School alumni.

In the past, Mao has also traveled to Trinidad to study leatherback sea turtles, California to observe sharks and sea rays and the Bahamas to monitor coral reef health.